When drilling pen blanks, it is best to run the lathe/drill press at a slow speed. Softly introduce the tip of the drill bit to the area to be drilled instead of gouging into it. This will allow the drill bit to "set its path". When boring the rest of the hole, back the bit out frequently to remove shavings. It is especially important to remove any wood chips the may be stuck in the flutes, especially at the tip area. If the flutes are not cleared, you are mashing the wood fibers instead of cutting them, and will usually result in an off-center hole or blowing out the end of the blanks. If your drill bit is squealing, there is a big chance it is either caked up with chips or it's trying to run off-center.

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Chris Wright

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Woodturners: 21st century Druids

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Re: (B) Drilling Pen BlanksReply #1 - Mar 14th, 2008 at 1:19pm

another tip is to place a scrap piece of wood under the pen blank you are drilling. This way the bit exits the blank cleanly as it drills into the scrap. blanks that do not have this scrap wood support at the exit hole will have more tendancy to blow out around the exit hole causing more clean up/truing.